Brave Fear (boyxboy)

Chapter 29

He was snapped out of his reverie by a yell from Jonas. "Ten minutes and we land!" he yelled. "In a cornfield."

Mallory's loud voice echoed throughout the plane. "Why can't you land this shitbucket anywhere normal?"

"You think I have permission to use a runway?" he yelled back. "We're probably going to be arrested as it is."

"Why?"

"We're in a military combat plane, dumbass!"

Grumbles sounded from Mallory but Zane couldn't make any of them out. He didn't know if he wanted to. Probably not.

He headed to join his friends, sitting down beside Marcus near the bunking quarters door. Marcus's cowboy hat seemed intent on invading his personal space, but he let it do what it liked. It helped keep Marcus's personality bends at bay.

"I wonder what a shock they got to look in the sky and see a combat plane flying low over the city," Daisy said, a laugh in her voice.

"I doubt they'd even know what to do if we attacked." Mallory chuckled. Marcus laid a hand on her arm.

"So does Wawrzynski," Anastasia said. "Why do you think he's targeting London? They haven't seen war in around a century. He anticipates no resistance." Her red hair stood out against the stark gray metal, and again, Zane found it almost blinding.

"He'll find it, though," Marcus said, a dangerous glint entering his eyes. Zane remembered seeing the same look in the tunnel when he faced the soldiers. "From us." Zane shivered at the intonation. He struggled to remember how he had ever thought of Marcus as harmless and goofy.

"We've got to be subtle," Zane said. "He doesn't know we're in London,"

"We assume he doesn't," Daisy said conspiratorially. "He could have set up fake emails for you to take and knows exactly where we are in this second. Those two jets and the autopilot could have just been nudging us toward distrust. He may have hoped we would fight among ourselves."

Zane sighed. Wawrzynski could be argued to know everything. The man was unpredictable, and Zane hated him for it. Zane was new to the world of unpredictability, and Wawrzynski wasn't making it any easier on him. "Let's adopt a new policy," he said, looking at Daisy. "We assume Wawrzynski knows everyone and everything, and absolutely everywhere we go. That way we'll never underestimate him."

Daisy pointed finger guns at him. "There you go,"

"So," he said. "Now that Wawrzynski knows where we are-" he winked. "-we should lay low until the attack comes. Try not to be noticed. Blend into London so it's practically impossible to discern us from them."

Daisy returned the wink. "I agree," she said forcefully. "London is a big place. Wawrzynski will need a lot of people to search the whole city. Also, the old portions of London have underground tunnels and hidden nooks and crannies."

"Assuming we can avoid capture upon landing." Marcus tugged at a thread on his collar. "They won't appreciate a jet armed with nuclear warheads landing in their airspace."

Daisy turned the finger guns on Marcus. "So as soon as we land, we book it for the city,"

"If that's how you want to phrase it, sure,"

"It is how I want to phrase it,"

"Alright, then,"

Daisy wrinkled her nose in mock disgust and turned to Anastasia. The two girls soon dove into a whispered, urgent conversation of which Zane could discern nothing.

Mallory turned to Marcus and Zane, a glint in her eye. "We're gonna stop a war," she said, and her tone made Zane want to believe in her statement truly. However, he knew their chances at success were slim, for Wawrzynski was always ahead of them.